Crossing Confessional Boundaries

The Patronage of Italian Sacred Music in Seventeenth-Century Dresden

Mary E. Frandsen

First critical examination of this period in the musical history of the Dresden court since the mid-nineteenth century.

Draws heavily upon primary source materials from archives in Dresden, accessible to western scholars only since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Includes a close examination of the texts set by these composers and their relationship to contemporary Lutheranism

Uses surviving liturgical sources to place the music within its original worship context, and to closely examine the role of music in the celebration of worship throughout the seasons of the church year.

Crossing Confessional Boundaries

The Patronage of Italian Sacred Music in Seventeenth-Century Dresden

Mary E. Frandsen

Description

Shortly after assuming the Saxon throne in 1656, Lutheran Elector Johann Georg II (r. 1656-80) replaced the elder Kapellmeister Heinrich Schütz with younger Italian Catholic composers. Seemingly overnight, sacred music in the most modern Italian style, first by Vincenzo Albrici (1631-90/96) and later by Giuseppe Peranda (ca. 1625-75) supplanted the more traditional Schützian sacred concerto and Spruchmotette, effecting a change in musical and spiritual life both within the walls of the Dresden court and beyond.

Drawing on extensive research in primary source materials, Frandsen explores the elector's "Italianization" of the Hofkapelle with castrati and other Italian virtuosi, and examines the larger confessional conflict that gripped the city of Dresden and its implications for the Catholic-leaning elector's musical agenda. She then examines the Latin texts set by Albrici and Peranda, a body of works dominated by expressions of mystical devotion typical of the repertoire then heard in Italy. However, drawing upon recent studies of the phenomenon of "new piety" in seventeenth-century Lutheranism, Frandsen locates these texts squarely within the realm of contemporary Lutheran spirituality, and demonstrates their congruity with devotional materials used by Lutherans since the mid-sixteenth century. In her discussion of the sacred concertos of Albrici and Peranda, she takes the concept of musica pathetica as a point of departure, and also explores the formal and stylistic relationships between the Roman motet and the new sacred concerto in Dresden. Finally, with the help of liturgies recorded in court diaries, she reintegrates this music into its original performance environment, and demonstrates how tightly the works of these Italians were woven into the Gospel-determined thematic fabric of the services celebrated during the church year.

A fascinating account of the uneasy alliance of two confessions at the prominent seventeenth-century court of Dresden, this book provides fresh insights into a neglected but influential repertoire. Frandsen's research will be of interest to scholars and students interested in Baroque music, the intellectual and cultural history of European courts, the history of liturgy and church history, and the Early Modern era in general.

Crossing Confessional Boundaries

The Patronage of Italian Sacred Music in Seventeenth-Century Dresden

Mary E. Frandsen

Author Information

Mary Frandsen is a member of the music faculty at the University of Notre Dame. She currently serves as Chair of the American Heinrich Schütz Society and is a member of the Governing Board of the Society for Seventeenth-Century Music.

Crossing Confessional Boundaries

The Patronage of Italian Sacred Music in Seventeenth-Century Dresden

Mary E. Frandsen

Reviews and Awards

"A thorough and fascinating study of liturgical practice, confessional identity, and music's overriding powers in the heartland of 17th-century Lutheranism. This book will be important reading for students of liturgy, princely politics, and music in early modern Europe."--Robert L. Kendrick, University of Chicago

"Frandsen carefully examines the entire milieu at the court of Johann Georg II--confessional, personal, political, economic, and liturgical--in which the Italian composers Albrici and Peranda worked, bringing vast theological and devotional resources to bear on her analysis of the composers' texts and their confessional implications. Equally sophisticated is her study of the style and organization of the music itself. Prof. Frandsen unfolds this intriguing story in an engaging narrative, filled with detail and analysis, that reads exceptionally well."--Jeffrey Kurtzman, Professor of Music, Washington University, St. Louis

"A splendid book, of interest to scholars of music, liturgy, Lutheranism and 17th-century history. From her command of a marvelous body of archival material, and astute musical and textual analysis of motets and sacred concertos, Mary Frandsen demonstrates that Elector Johann Georg II, by employing Italian Catholic musicians, brought significant changes to traditional Lutheran devotion. Frandsen's study is an original and penetrating discussion of this little-known ruler, his penchant for Italian musicians, and the resulting implications for both music and theology."--Anne Schnoebelen, Mullen Professor Emerita of Music, Rice University